HSS 68, 525

~2080 BCE·Ur III · Neo-Sumerian·P407493

Translation · reference

Experimental

Source: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P407493.

Why it matters

Transliteration

1(disz) gu4 5(disz) udu
geme2-sa6-ga dam [ur]-mes#
u4 da#-mu#? in-da#-a#
giri3 bu3-sza#-num2# sukkal?
ARAD2-mu maszkim
5(disz) udu
szu-gid2 e2-muhaldim-sze3
u4 2(u) 1(disz)-kam
ki in-ta-e3-a-ta ba-zi
iti ezem-an-na
mu en nanna ba-hun
1(disz) gu4 1(u) udu

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — HSS 68, 525. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format). [year-name] Dated to Šulgi y15 — The en-priest of Nanna was installed based on canonical year-name formula in the transliteration.

Attribution

Image: Harvard Museum of the Ancient Near East, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA (P407493) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P407493..

Related tablets

Related sources

~3200 BCE

Proto-Cuneiform Account Tablet

One of the earliest specimens of human writing. Not literature, not law — accounting. The need to keep track of grain in a temple bureaucracy is what pushed marks-on-clay into a system that could one day carry epics.

~3500 BCE

Kish Tablet

Marks the boundary between proto-writing and writing. We can see signs being used systematically — but not yet phonetically. The leap to recording speech itself comes a few centuries later.

~2450 BCE

Stele of the Vultures

The earliest historical document in human history. Before this, we have lists, accounts, and dedications. Here, for the first time, a ruler tells us what happened — with names, places, and consequences.